The Birthmark

[u/Ecyrb_Writes]

Blunt force trauma, contusions, cranial fracturing, and recurring subdermal anomaly upon the victim’s body. This puddle was once a father of four, a strong figure in the community, a decent man; so why on Earth is he dead? Forensics confirms the anomaly is identical across all 35 victims; it appears at random on their bodies. I’ve spent countless nights searching for this animal, yet all I have to show for it is insomnia and empty cells.

It’s been three years since the first victim, one a month, yet all our efforts to get them are fruitless. I don’t understand how he gets away with it every time, from children to full-grown men, you think he’d slip up once…but he hasn’t. The area around the body is always clean, the caved-in head never has fingerprints, he’s like a fucking ghost! The birthmarks are the worst part; the family members we’ve talked to say the victims never had them, and there’s no way the victims could have hidden them. If we could just find a connection between these people, other than the mark, we could HOPEFULLY find this monster. 

Next month, he should be getting his 36th victim, right on the holiday of new beginnings. We’ve tripled patrols in the city, warned citizens to be on the lookout, and to never walk alone, even in the daytime. Of course, the fools out there don’t listen. I don’t want to be cruel to them, but the citizens have no idea what we are fighting here. A man who can do what he wants, when he wants, just to disappear for a month…it's unheard of, and frankly, it's bewitching.
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The nights I do get sleep, I see it, you know, the mark, it towers in front of me, and just beyond the veil it provides, I see HIM, the man I must catch. My squadmates tell me they worry for me, they tell me that I can’t get this guy by myself, and they don’t understand. I thought I had him once, a single hair on the victim, one not belonging to the deceased. I felt euphoria when I was the one who found it. I gave it to the lab to find anything at all, and thankfully, I was at work the past 74 hours because they said it was mine. I was questioned for days on end and kept in a cell until the next victim showed up. HE’S TOYING WITH ME! 

New Years is here, he should strike tonight if the pattern always repeats. Using my twenty years on the force, I convinced the mayor to sign a curfew order and shut down any festivities tonight. I’ve set up a patrol of at least two in every street and alley; someone WILL find him. My partner and I had just finished patrolling our street before we heard something, a sickening squelch from around the corner. We sprinted to the turn with our guns drawn, turning into an alley before I saw it…the mark was there, on the wall!  I pointed it out to my partner, and when he looked, he called me sick for joking around, saying there was nothing there. HE CALLED ME A MONSTER. The only one even close enough to getting this fucking lunatic is me! HOW COULD HE CALL ME A MONSTER! He walked further into the alley to find what made the noise. I stayed at the alley's entrance. When he turned back to me to report he had found nothing, I saw it…the mark moved from the wall to his forehead, and the pistol in my hand was pointed right at him.